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It’s now a lot easier to join the Internet Commerce Association

The Internet Commerce Association (ICA), a group advocating for domain name investors, introduced less expensive membership options this year. Individual domain name investors can join the group for $600 per year, and it can be paid $50 a month.

The group just made it a lot easier to sign up as well. The new online registration allows you to set up a recurring payment through your PayPal account. It takes about two minutes to register; I know because I did it yesterday.

In addition to advocating in front of ICANN, governments and other groups, ICA Counsel Phil Corwin (podcast) does an excellent job informing domain investors of recent activity and what it means for them. For example, Phil wrote a great explanation about Verisign’s .com contract extension with ICANN and what it means for .com prices going forward. As someone who analyzes the domain name industry for a living, I know this type of analysis takes a lot of work.

I think what they were saying Andrew was that you made it seems like $600 a year was only something like $60. I think they still think $600 is high.

I have been saying for years that the ICA had to make it easier and cheaper, what matters is number of members. Congress and other organizations will pay more attention to a group with 10,000 members vs 500.

I think the new lower price is very fair. Any less and it may risk just not making an impact for with this organization does. It is probably borderline enough as it is and likely costs the org by causing the loss of higher doners to the lower fee membership.

Hi Raymond, thanks for the feedback. The domain industry is a relatively small one. 10,000 members is a big ask for an industry our size. Sometimes a small sale is just as hard to make as a big one, so reducing the price even further wouldn’t necessarily make a difference in more people joining, since motivation not price is likely the bigger determinant.

The advocacy efforts of the ICA, and having a top lobbyist in Phil Corwin working hard and effectively on our behalf, requires funds.

We need to balance making the ICA affordable with raising enough funds from those in the community who care enough to join that we can carry out our work.

If you are earning a living in the domain industry, and you want to protect that livelihood, then $50 a month is likely an affordable amount. We ask our members to self-select the right level for them, and many domainers contribute at substantially higher levels because they believe our mission deserves support.

Our industry is quite vulnerable to adverse policies coming out of ICANN. For many in the industry, a $50/mo level is not an obstacle to joining. We invite those in the domain industry to join your colleagues who are members of the ICA so that by joining together all of us are better protected.

Thanks for the kind words, Andrew. Likewise, I know that doing a blog like yours day in and out is also lots of work, and we all appreciate the clear information and analysis you impart. And thanks as well for being one of ICA’s newest members.